Latino Orsini

Who was Latino Orsini?

Latino Orsini was an Italian Cardinal.

He was of Roman branch of the Orsini family and the owner of rich possessions, He entered the ranks of the Roman clergy as a youth, became subdeacon, and as early as 10 March 1438, was raised to the Episcopal See of Conza in Southern Italy. Transferred from this see to that of Trani in 1439, he remained archbishop of Trani after his elevation to the cardinalate by Pope Nicholas V on 20 December 1448.

In 1454 the Archbishopric of Bari was conferred upon him, which made it possible for him to take up his residence in Rome, the See of Trani being given to his brother, John Orsini, Abbot of Farfa. Pope Paul II appointed him papal legate for the Marches.

Pope Sixtus IV, for whose election in 1471 Cardinal Latino had worked energetically, named him Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, granted him in 1472 the Archdiocese of Taranto, which he governed by proxy, and, in addition, placed him at the head of the government of the Papal States. He was also appointed commander-in-chief of the papal fleet in the war against the Turks, and, acting for the pope, crowned Ferdinand I of Naples.

He founded in Rome the monastery of S.